Bethlehem City Council on Tuesday backed hiking the cap on the amusement tax by 50 cents a ticket, half of what Mayor Robert Donchez proposed.

For those who come to the city for concerts and other ticketed events, it means the 5 percent fee tacked onto tickets would increase from a maximum of $1.50 to $2 per ticket.

Tickets $10 to $30 would still be paying the same fee. But the fee on a $40 ticket, for example, would go from $1.50 to $2.

While some arts venues said the fee increase would hurt entertainment and cultural programs, city officials called the cap increase modest and needed to spread the cost of city services to all those who work, live and play in the city. Council is already considering job cuts as well as tax and fee increases.

"This is another piece of the puzzle," Councilman Eric Evans said.

Evans said council would be able to cut the proposed cap from the mayor's proposal of $1 to 50 cents because of a change in how the tax will be collected. Under the proposed ordinance, the city would get the revenue on a monthly basis instead of quarterly. That means the city wouldn't have to wait until 2016 to get the tax collected in the last quarter of 2015.

Council reached the decision, which must be reaffirmed on second reading of the vote in two weeks, after some impassioned pleas by representatives from some nonprofit arts groups and the Sands Bethlehem Event Center.

Matt Croslis, attorney for the event center, had argued the additional fees could cause fans to see the shows elsewhere or steer entertainers to other venues. The fee affects 90 percent of the shows, amounting to $185,000 last year and $239,000 so far this year.

If the higher cap had been in place last year, Croslis said, 15 shows could not have been booked because the performers would not have allowed the center to pass along the fee to its ticket buyers.

The event center, which is operated by three partners who lease the land from the Sands casino, would have lost money on 35 shows.

That means the event center would have been dark for 50 nights, decreasing the demand for hotel rooms and restaurants, eroding the economy where the city gets revenue through other taxes, according to Croslis.

"Our concerns are about the trickle-down effect," Croslis said.

Representatives of three nonprofits lobbied council to provide an exemption for nonprofits, which are already providing subsidized tickets for those in need and fighting for fewer charitable dollars.

Christine Roysden, the volunteer treasurer for Chamber Music Society of Bethlehem, said that for the first time in 60 years the organization finished last year in the red and the amusement tax accounted for 40 percent of that deficit.

"Think carefully about an exemption," she urged council.

Council members Cathy Reuscher and Adam Waldron said they wanted to lessen the impact on the smaller nonprofits. Reuscher said she would consider whether to raise the minimum ticket price on which the tax is collected. The minimum is $10.

The current tax does not assess movie theater tickets or public events like high school sports. The tax also doesn't affect events with fewer than 200 people. It also does not affect Christkindlmarkt, because it's cheaper than $10.

City officials have argued other locations have been able to impose similar fees. Easton has an amusement tax with a $2.50 cap. Allentown has none.

The cap increase on the amusement tax is a small part in the mayor's plan to balance the $71.3 million budget, which carries a 6.2 percent real estate tax increase.